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Incentives from Medicare, health plans and technology companies have helped double the number of physicians switching to electronic prescribing, to about 70,000 -- 12% of office-based doctors. E-prescribing helps reduce medical errors and wait times for patients at drugstores, but barriers to full-fledged adoption remain, including federal drug laws that limit the types of medications that can be prescribed electronically.

Related Summaries

Only 6% of office-based physicians used electronic prescribing in 2007, but that jumped to 69% in 2012, after the Medicare Improvements for Patients and Providers Act launched incentives for e-prescribers in 2009 and later penalties for those who stuck with paper, according to a report in Health Affairs. "We found strong evidence that the incentives did indeed succeed," researchers wrote.

Incentives from Medicare, health plans and technology companies have helped double the number of physicians switching to electronic prescribing, to about 70,000 -- 12% of office-based doctors. E-prescribing helps reduce medical errors and wait times for patients at drugstores, but barriers to full-fledged adoption remain, including federal drug laws that limit the types of medications that can be prescribed electronically.

Incentives from Medicare, health plans and technology companies have helped double the number of physicians switching to electronic prescribing, to about 70,000 -- 12% of office-based doctors. E-prescribing helps reduce medical errors and wait times for patients at drugstores, but barriers to full-fledged adoption remain, including federal drug laws that limit the types of medications that can be prescribed electronically.

Incentives from Medicare, health plans and technology companies have helped double the number of health care professionals switching to electronic prescribing, to about 70,000 -- 12% of office-based providers. E-prescribing helps reduce medical errors and wait times for patients at drugstores, but barriers to full-fledged adoption remain, including federal drug laws that limit the types of medications that can be prescribed electronically.

Incentives from Medicare, health plans and technology companies have helped double the number of physicians switching to electronic prescribing, to about 70,000 -- 12% of office-based doctors. E-prescribing helps reduce medical errors and wait times for patients at drugstores, but barriers to full-fledged adoption remain, including federal drug laws that limit the types of medications that can be prescribed electronically.